In a yahoo h2h league 6X6 (R, HR, RBI, SB, BB, AVG, W, SV, K, HLD, ERA, WHIP) how does the scoring work? Are all categories worth the same; is a hold worth as much as a save?
I've only played with points never h2h - I'm not sure if the strategies are the same or not.

joeblow53 wrote:Thanks. Let me ask you this, in points leagues some people punt saves - is it a good idea to do that in a h2h league. We can start 8 ptichers do use 4 SP, 3 RP and 1 MR for holds?

Thanks

There's all different kinds of opininions regarding punting categories. The most common category to punt is steels. Saves usually aren't punted because most leagues have "RP" positions that can only be filled by closers or middle relievers.

I personally don't punt categories. If, for instance, you get a couple extra starters instead of closers, this more likely than not will help you in strikeouts and wins, but will also hurt you in WHIP and ERA. I try to build a team that at least gives me a shot to win every single category. If you punt a cateogory, you're essentially starting out 0-22. Can you make up 22 losses by redistributing points to different categories? Unlikely, I feel.

joeblow53 wrote:I agree, I just not sure how to set my pitching up to be competitive in all categories. Right now I don't have anyone to get holds.

Punting categories is something that will be debated as long as fantasy baseball is around. I personally prefer not to punt any category, but I understand the argument made FOR punting a category.

It sounds like you have a strategy (which is to be balanced). Since you know what you want to do, that makes things easier. I would recommend grabbing 2-3 closers and 2 holds guys and fill in your starters elsewhere.

Keep in mind that if you're ever going to punt holds, you had better make sure you can 100% win saves...and vice versa.

6x6 is easier to punt a category in than 5x5 (since each category makes up 1/12 instead of 1/10 of the total). As people have mentioned punting/not punting will be argued as long as there is FBB. Just make sure if you do punt a category you're that much stronger in the other categories.

Personally, I have one league that I'm punting a large number of categories in this year. It's a 14 team keeper league where we keep 6. I didn't have a pick until the 8th round as I took over a pretty bad team and overhauled it to win in 2007. I was faced with the choice of trying to build a balanced team while not picking until the end of the 8th round or punting some categories.

I ended up having to punt saves, w's and k's (since there's no guarantee I could win ANY of them with what was left in the 8th round...which is really the equivalent of a 14th rounder when you take the keepers into account). I went with a MR strategy to complement my one keeper SP (Carpenter) and drafted Shields, Rincon, Linebrink, Duchsherer, Soriano and Rodney.

I also had to adjust my offensive goals as well...I had Pujols, Utley, Rollins, Rolen and Crawford as keepers. While I wasn't hurting in any area offensively my forte was R's/SB's/AVE while being average in HR/RBI. Since all of the big boppers left in the draft were long gone by the 8th round I'm semi-punting HR/RBI by drafting guys that are reliable in at least R/AVE if not all 3 categories but that I could get in the 12th round and beyond (Casey, DeJesus, Murton, Lofton, Sullivan, etc).

It's not a strategy that's going to win the league or even finish in the playoffs. There's not really ANY strategy that does that for you when you don't pick until the 8th round though. So there ARE times when punting makes sense...you just have to make sure you're punting for a good reason and not just because it was the plan going into the draft. For example, if some good SP had dropped to the 8th round (enough for me to have been confident I could build a decent SP staff) I would not have punted W's and K's. If some closers that didn't completely stink had dropped I wouldn't have punted SV's. If some big mashers had dropped to the 8th I wouldn't have semi-punted HR/RBI. It's all about going with the best value.

In 6X6 when holds is the extra category, punting saves makes a lot more sense. Saves are no more valuable than holds, but closers will most likely come off the board way before set up men. If these were the settings in my league I would consider punting saves too (depending on how the draft panned out). You can grab the elite set up guys (Linebrink, Shields, Baez, Rincon, etc) much later than the elite closers.

In an h2h league where you can play 8 P a week is it a good idea to punt categories from week to week? I'm in a 6x6 league (with holds).

For example, in a h2h league if I'm playing someone with 4 SP, 1 closer and 3 strong holds guys - I only have 2 holds guys, 3 Closer, and 5 strong SP . Would I then use all three closers and 5 SP and punt the holds to ensure a better chance for the W, SV, and K?

joeblow53 wrote:In an h2h league where you can play 8 P a week is it a good idea to punt categories from week to week? I'm in a 6x6 league (with holds).

For example, in a h2h league if I'm playing someone with 4 SP, 1 closer and 3 strong holds guys - I only have 2 holds guys, 3 Closer, and 5 strong SP . Would I then use all three closers and 5 SP and punt the holds to ensure a better chance for the W, SV, and K?

I think you have the right idea. But this is easier said than done.

Just be sure that if you are going to punt a category that you have another category absolutely locked up. It has to work like that, or else the punting strategy is deemed useless.

You're on the right track and judging by your current roster it will change from week to week depending on your opponent.